Seafood is an increasingly popular food item the world over. Crabs, including King Crab (Lithodes Aequispinus, Paralithodes Camtschaticus and Paralithodes Platypus), Snow Crab (Chionoecetes Angulatus, Chionoecetes Baridi, Chionoecetes Opilio, Chionoecetes Tanneri and Chionoecetes Japonicus) and other species, are found throughout the world and primarily in the waters off Russia, the USA, Canada and Norway. Crabs, and in particular King Crab and Snow Crab, are a highly popular, much sought after delicacy. Such crab are typified by having large concentrations of highly flavorful meat in their legs, arms and claws. Typically, after capture, the appendages of such crabs are separated from the remainder of the body and sold to consumers. Typically, although not necessarily, the legs, arms and claws are pre-cooked and/or frozen before retail sale.
As with all crustaceans, King, Snow and other sought after crabs have an external skeleton in the form of an exterior shell containing the muscles and internal organs within. Given their size, the exterior shells of sought-after crabs can make it difficult for consumers to get at the edible meat contained therein. This is particularly true in the case of King and Snow Crabs, where the bulk of the edible meat is contained in the legs, arms and claws. It is, therefore, necessary to crack the shells before eating—a sometimes messy, difficult and potentially dangerous undertaking. To alleviate this problem, the legs of King, Snow and other crab are sometimes pre-cracked before retail sale. This is typically accomplished using a crushing type operation that introduces cracks into the exterior shell of the legs in a more-or -less random manner. Although effective, the random nature of the cracks sometimes makes it difficult for consumers effectively to remove the shell without either encountering difficulty or damaging the underlying meat. Accordingly, there remains room for improvement in the way King, Snow and other crab legs, arms and claws are processed before distribution to consumers.